No decision on Korea cross-border talks

SEOUL, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- South Korea said Friday it hasn't decided yet whether to accept North Korea's proposal to discuss resuming their long-suspended cross-border tours.

The North has proposed the talks reconvene Tuesday and Wednesday at Mount Kumgang, a scenic mountain on the east coast where cross-border tours were suspended after a South Korean tourist who had entered a restricted zone was fatally shot by a North Korean guard in July 2008.

The North sought to resume tours to the historic border city of Kaesong where the two countries have also run a joint industrial park since 2004, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported. The tours to the city near the west coast were suspended in December 2008 after having been operated for a year.

"We're carefully examining the North Korean proposal in consideration of recent changes in inter-Korean relations," Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said in a briefing.